Very interesting—thank you Alvin!—I appreciate you bringing your expertise to bear on this issue. I personally don’t want to build a community but I’d like to be part of a community as interesting as Write of Passage once was.
Thanks, Chris! I can kind of relate. While I couldn't join Write of Passage, I was fortunate enough to know Louie Bacaj who started the Newsletter Launchpad community with Chris Wong. And I'm really glad I did, or I wouldn't have met talented, inspiring writers like you.
I'm grateful for that opportunity. However short-lived. Similarly, I miss the community and the vibrant interactions we had. I suppose one option is to start a new one...
Hi Alvin, yes I guess it’s through the Newsletter group that you and I met, along with Sairam and others. Louie and Chris are great.
That’s another level what you write about in this post: the need for an enduring institution of some kind that outlasts a particular specific purpose. The Newsletter course was finite in time and Louie and Chris moved on from teaching it, so the group dispersed. The same thing happened to WoP on a larger scale.
In theory some kind of on-line college or group like Plato’s ancient Academy would work if it attracted the kind of talented people WoP and the Newsletter group did, and they all got to know each other and enjoyed interacting and helping each other.
It’s hard to imagine it without some kind of guiding light and then a group of hardworking organisers.
David Perell got burned out. I think the WoP economic model was working, but it wasn’t going to produce a billion dollar valuation. In our time, it seems that without the promise of extraordinary profits it’s difficult to find the necessary financial support for innovative cultural enterprises.
The yearning for relationships and self-improvement / personal growth is strong, pervasive and unsatisfied, but nobody is building the 21st century Bauhaus—and the only one that appeared and started to grow was prematurely abandoned.
If I were to build a modern Platonic Academy, I would start small.
Very small.
If I learned anything starting my newsletter, it's that anything of quality takes time to build. To endure the tests of time, we have to enjoy the process of continuously improving the thing in question. That forms an "engine."
When I started my newsletter, I could've centered it on software development since that's my profession. I'm positive I would've gained a substantially greater audience much faster. The problem is that I don't enjoy writing about that topic. I knew I would burn out quickly. The engine would seize.
I purposely chose a theme I felt I could write about indefinitely. Even if it meant a smaller audience. Because I needed an engine that would run for as long as I needed it to.
And I tend to think my theory holds true for all endeavors.
If I want to start an endeavor and maximize its chance of success, it must be built on an engine that can run indefinitely.
So, if I were to start a writing community (or "academy"), I can identify two key engines I would need in the following order:
(1) A passion for writing (indefinitely) - which I have... for now...
(2) A passion for building a community or organization
The former must be established first because it is the "why" backing the "how." In the words of Viktor Frankl, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
I *might* have the latter. I don't know for sure until I try. But if I don't and if I believe in the mission of (for example) inspiring others to write (well), then I'll need to delegate the task to someone (or people) who *does* have the passion and experience in building organizations guided by the vision I set.
The community must start small, and not scale up too quickly, because the community must be led by those who share the strong vision and mission to maximize the engine's power and longevity.
A community like this should not start with profit in mind. And participants should not be charged in the early stages. This ensures that all who join in the "startup" phase share the same engine (#1). I liken this to pick-up basketball. People are free to come and go. And those who join do so just because they like to play basketball with others, and for no other reason.
If it succeeds, then the community will grow, leading to the "scaling" phase of organizational growth. Though, profit will be critical for scaling, the focus must never shift overwhelmingly to profit because that shifts the direction of the community and the source of its power and longevity. Retaining the "why" gets harder as an organization scales. I don't have a solution for that right now. But there's no sense in worrying about that until I get there.
I'm also not sure I'd ever want such a community to seek a billion dollar valuation, anyway. Does it really need to grow indefinitely? Plato's Academy didn't. Sure, there were spin-offs or derivatives, but the Academy itself didn't grow forever.
Perhaps I'm naive, ignorant, and idealistic. But this is how I imagine I'd start a community or academy. As always, I welcome critique! These are just some random rough thoughts that might not even be all that coherent.
Very interesting—thank you Alvin!—I appreciate you bringing your expertise to bear on this issue. I personally don’t want to build a community but I’d like to be part of a community as interesting as Write of Passage once was.
Thanks, Chris! I can kind of relate. While I couldn't join Write of Passage, I was fortunate enough to know Louie Bacaj who started the Newsletter Launchpad community with Chris Wong. And I'm really glad I did, or I wouldn't have met talented, inspiring writers like you.
I'm grateful for that opportunity. However short-lived. Similarly, I miss the community and the vibrant interactions we had. I suppose one option is to start a new one...
Hi Alvin, yes I guess it’s through the Newsletter group that you and I met, along with Sairam and others. Louie and Chris are great.
That’s another level what you write about in this post: the need for an enduring institution of some kind that outlasts a particular specific purpose. The Newsletter course was finite in time and Louie and Chris moved on from teaching it, so the group dispersed. The same thing happened to WoP on a larger scale.
In theory some kind of on-line college or group like Plato’s ancient Academy would work if it attracted the kind of talented people WoP and the Newsletter group did, and they all got to know each other and enjoyed interacting and helping each other.
It’s hard to imagine it without some kind of guiding light and then a group of hardworking organisers.
David Perell got burned out. I think the WoP economic model was working, but it wasn’t going to produce a billion dollar valuation. In our time, it seems that without the promise of extraordinary profits it’s difficult to find the necessary financial support for innovative cultural enterprises.
The yearning for relationships and self-improvement / personal growth is strong, pervasive and unsatisfied, but nobody is building the 21st century Bauhaus—and the only one that appeared and started to grow was prematurely abandoned.
If I were to build a modern Platonic Academy, I would start small.
Very small.
If I learned anything starting my newsletter, it's that anything of quality takes time to build. To endure the tests of time, we have to enjoy the process of continuously improving the thing in question. That forms an "engine."
When I started my newsletter, I could've centered it on software development since that's my profession. I'm positive I would've gained a substantially greater audience much faster. The problem is that I don't enjoy writing about that topic. I knew I would burn out quickly. The engine would seize.
I purposely chose a theme I felt I could write about indefinitely. Even if it meant a smaller audience. Because I needed an engine that would run for as long as I needed it to.
And I tend to think my theory holds true for all endeavors.
If I want to start an endeavor and maximize its chance of success, it must be built on an engine that can run indefinitely.
So, if I were to start a writing community (or "academy"), I can identify two key engines I would need in the following order:
(1) A passion for writing (indefinitely) - which I have... for now...
(2) A passion for building a community or organization
The former must be established first because it is the "why" backing the "how." In the words of Viktor Frankl, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
I *might* have the latter. I don't know for sure until I try. But if I don't and if I believe in the mission of (for example) inspiring others to write (well), then I'll need to delegate the task to someone (or people) who *does* have the passion and experience in building organizations guided by the vision I set.
The community must start small, and not scale up too quickly, because the community must be led by those who share the strong vision and mission to maximize the engine's power and longevity.
A community like this should not start with profit in mind. And participants should not be charged in the early stages. This ensures that all who join in the "startup" phase share the same engine (#1). I liken this to pick-up basketball. People are free to come and go. And those who join do so just because they like to play basketball with others, and for no other reason.
If it succeeds, then the community will grow, leading to the "scaling" phase of organizational growth. Though, profit will be critical for scaling, the focus must never shift overwhelmingly to profit because that shifts the direction of the community and the source of its power and longevity. Retaining the "why" gets harder as an organization scales. I don't have a solution for that right now. But there's no sense in worrying about that until I get there.
I'm also not sure I'd ever want such a community to seek a billion dollar valuation, anyway. Does it really need to grow indefinitely? Plato's Academy didn't. Sure, there were spin-offs or derivatives, but the Academy itself didn't grow forever.
Perhaps I'm naive, ignorant, and idealistic. But this is how I imagine I'd start a community or academy. As always, I welcome critique! These are just some random rough thoughts that might not even be all that coherent.